A Clarendon woman pled guilty today to a felony charge related to the 2011 death of her grandson, Chance Mark Jones.
Gayle Edes will serve 90 days in the Donley County Jail, and a ten-year state jail sentence was probated as a condition of her plea agreement. If she had been found guilty by a jury, Edes could have faced up to 99 years or life in prison.
In January, Donley County Grand Jury indicted Edes for the first degree felony of Injury to a Child by Omission, and court records alleged that on January 3, 2011, the accused intentionally or knowingly, by omission, caused serious bodily injury to four-year-old Chance Mark Jones by her failure to get medical attention for the boy and that she had assumed care, custody, or control of the child at that time.
Edes son, Robert Babcock, had custody of Jones for just a few weeks before, according to local authorities, he began abusing the boy on December 24, 2010, and continued abusing him until January 4, 2011. On that date, Babcock called emergency personnel to his residence near Clarendon where they found Jones unresponsive.
The boy died the next morning at Northwest Texas Hospital in Amarillo. An autopsy conducted the next day revealed that the boy died from blunt force trauma to the head and that he also suffered internal injuries from trauma to the torso. Investigators at the time called the case the worse they had ever worked.
In June, a Hall County Jury found Babcock guilty of capital murder, and he is now serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.
The state held that Edes knew what was happening to the boy and did not get him medical attention.
Once her jail sentence is served, the court has permitted Edes to serve her probation in Potter or Randall County due to her need for medical care.
My name is Shirley, but Chance called me Neena. He loved me as his Great Grandmother and that paternity test didn’t mean a thing. That fact was proven by the actions of his biological grandmother. My anger started the second I heard that Chance was on the way to the hospital in Amarillo. After I read “Heaven is for Real” about three times, I realized that Our Chance is exactly where he should be. God looked down from heaven and when he saw who was in the hospital room with Chance – God decided to take Chance home with him – I am still angry that I don’t get a phone call on Saturday morning from Chance saying -” Nanny has breakfast ready – come eat with us.” I saw my daughter’s happiness as she watched Chance grow. We can’t see Chance now but his presence will always be with us. He will always have a place in our heart. His biological grandmother missed out on all of that love – that is her loss and it is a giant one. Yes, I would have given her a stiffer sentence – but it is time for us to move on. She has suffered every day since this started and she will continue to suffer. Let’s wear our “Don’t take a Chance” bracelets and do whatever is in our power to see that no other child will ever go through the torture that Chance went through. The greatest tribute we can give Chance is to love each other as he loved us –